Fall Cleaning Tips: 9 ways to get your home ready for cooler temperaturesNews from Wicked Local Hanson:

Beautiful fall colors mean changing temperatures and the looming arrival of winter. Get a head start on the shifting seasons by readying your home for less sunlight and more time spent indoors.

Clean light fixtures

Shorter days mean more time spent indoors and lights being on longer. Now is the time to change any burned-out light bulbs and clean the light fixtures. Most light fixtures can be cleaned with a little soapy water. If time is limited, then just dusting your fixtures can help brighten a room. Don’t forget to clean the outside lights; you’ll want to be aware of any future patches of ice.

Make sure to dispose of burned-out CFL light bulbs properly. The mercury found in them can be damaging to the environment. Local recycling centers for CFLs can be found on earth911.com.

7 surprising ways to use salt around the houseNews from ConsumerReports.org:

You can’t tell by looking at her but the iconic Morton Salt Girl has turned 100. For a century she has toted an umbrella and a free-flowing container of salt to illustrate the company’s motto: “When it rains it pours.” Back in the day salt tended to clump in damp weather. And although that may seem like a quaint notion today, some of Morton Salt’s household tips have withstood the test of time. Here are a few to try.

Before we get started, keep in mind that although Consumer Reports tests plenty of cleaning products we haven’t tested these particular home remedies that we found on the Morton Salt website. But they seem like economical solutions to some everyday problems. You’re bound to have a carton of salt in your pantry so if you run out of your go-to cleaner, you can always use salt in a pinch.

Martha’s Home is in desperate need of cleaning supplies, so they are hosting a Fall Roundup to collect those donated items. / Martha’s Home poster

AMARILLO —

There’s an old adage that says, ‘A clean home is a happy home’. And that is the reason why Martha’s Home is home asking the community for cleaning supply donations.

Tonight, on October 23rd, from 5-7 pm, Martha’s Home will host a “Clean Homes, Happy Homes, Martha’s Home Fall Roundup” event. The goal of the event is…………… continues on ConnectAmarillo.com powered by KVII

How to slash your winter bill, according to utilities expertsNews from The Week Magazine:

Sunday afternoon football. The smell of pumpkin pie wafting through the house. Stringing up holiday lights.

Now that the leaves have started to change and crisp nights have set in, there are all sorts of seasonal highlights to look forward to — but are you also envisioning the extra cash you’ll be shelling out to keep those lights twinkling and the heat cranked up?

Of course you’re not.

That’s because, while we’re well aware of the conventional advice for cutting high monthly expenses — ditch the costly cable and pick up Netflix! — we rarely focus on the other sundry utility bills that fill our mailbox each month.

You know, the boring ones — like gas, electric, water and heat.

But those utilities can quickly add up to hundreds of dollars a month in the winter, which is why we rounded up utility employees across the country to share their top energy-saving tips for slashing those costs.

After all, how would you rather spend your fun money this season — on astronomical gas and heating bills or a wee…………… continues on The Week Magazine

Art Spiegelman’s ‘Wordless’ makes for an atypical tourNews from Kansas City Star:

Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Art Spiegelman believes “the war between words and pictures is now in full flower.”

That concept blooms during his presentation “Wordless,” which debuted at the Sydney Opera House last year and will have its Midwest unveiling at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.

The show features a collaboration with composer Phillip Johnston, who performs an original jazz score to accompany Spiegelman’s personal tour through the early 20th century graphic novels that influenced him.

“Excited is one way of putting it,” Spiegelman says about the reality of embarking on this atypical tour. “Freaked out is also a good synonym.”

Prior to his later career crafting iconic images for The New Yorker — including the renowned post-9/11 “black cover” — Spiegelman’s work leaned more toward humor. He developed into a mainstay of the San Francisco underground comics scene. He helped create the parody kids fads Wacky Packages and Garbage Pail Kids.

But it was “Maus” that solidified his reputation as one of the most respected voices in comics. The 1991 effort told the story of his parents’ experiences at Auschwitz throughout World War II, depicting Jews as mice and Germans as cats. The project became the first graphic novel to earn a Pulitzer.

From his Manhattan studio, the 66-year-old…………… continues on Kansas City Star

Many US hospitals have improperly trained their staffs to deal with Ebola patients because they were following federal guidelines that were too lax, infection control experts said on Wednesday.

Federal health officials effectively acknowledged the problems with their procedures for protecting health care workers by abruptly changing them. At 8 p.m. Tuesday evening, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued stricter guidelines for US hospitals with Ebola patients.

Continue reading below

They are now closer to the procedures of Doctors Without Borders, which has decades of experience in fighting Ebola in Africa. In issuing the new guidelines, the CDC acknowledged that its experts had learned by working alongside that medical charity, which goes by its French initials, MSF.

The agency’s new voluntary guidelines include full-body suits covering the head and neck; supervision of the risky process of taking off protective gear; and the use of…………… continues on Boston Globe

Tips and advice for cleaning up after a flood has occurredNews from InsideHalton.com:

Flooding can be devastating when it occurs. It can also be extremely dangerous. After all, flood water can be contaminated with soil bacteria, decaying insects, animal droppings, oils and fluids from roadways, and pesticides from fields or gardens. However, flood victims can follow a few simple steps to reduce property damage and limit their health risks when this unfortunate type of event occurs. Lakeshore Carpet Cleaning in Oakville, Ontario offers these easy to follow tips to clean up after flood waters recede:

Fall Cleaning Tips: 9 ways to get your home ready for cooler temperaturesNews from Wicked Local Essex:

Beautiful fall colors mean changing temperatures and the looming arrival of winter. Get a head start on the shifting seasons by readying your home for less sunlight and more time spent indoors.

Clean light fixtures

Shorter days mean more time spent indoors and lights being on longer. Now is the time to change any burned-out light bulbs and clean the light fixtures. Most light fixtures can be cleaned with a little soapy water. If time is limited, then just dusting your fixtures can help brighten a room. Don’t forget to clean the outside lights; you’ll want to be aware of any future patches of ice.

Make sure to dispose of burned-out CFL light bulbs properly. The mercury found in them can be damaging to the environment. Local recycling centers for CFLs can be found on earth911.com.

Nowadays it is incredibly important to have a clean and tidy working environment, particularly if your workplace is customer-facing.

Not only does having a clean workplace facilitate productivity, but it also creates a positive perception of your company.

If you want a cleaner, leaner workforce then follow our top tips below to get your building cleared up in no time.

Floor cleaning

Recoat floors to give extra protection during adverse weather conditions. Floors can get damaged easily with soil, various marks and other stains. They should also be mopped on a regular basis.

Mats

Installing mats and rugs are another good way to avoid scuff marks. Place them at entrances and exits to prevent dirt from coming into contact with the floor as people come into the building.

Sprays

Many stores contain sprays that can be used to quickly clean any desks and surfaces. Be sure to keep lots of wipes and clean cloths around.

Allocating

Give every item in your workplace a place and ensure it is kept there. This will help cut down on unnecessary clutter and allows things to be found much more easily.

Rubbish

Empty the rubbish on a regular basis and assign different teams or departments to be responsible for that. You should also arrange for the areas that people eat in to be frequently vacu…………… continues on Fastklean

Dutch oven cooking is a staple for many people when they camp. The thick-walled, cast iron pots are traditionally used for outdoor cooking, but models have also been created for kitchen use.

Anyone considering investing in a Dutch oven should realize that cast iron can’t simply be thrown into a dishwasher. The pots need specialized care and cleaning. Here are a few tips to keep your Dutch oven in good condition and to prevent rusting.

‘Seasoning’ the Dutch oven

Before you cook in your Dutch oven for the first time, you should wash it with warm water and mild dish soap, according to popular Dutch oven brand Lodge. You should thoroughly dry the Dutch oven with paper towels or dish towels. It is very important that you completely dry the Dutch oven before further use because prolonged water saturation can cause the cast iron to rust.

Next, you apply a thin layer of liquid vegetable oil all over the Dutch oven, inside and out. Then you place the Dutch oven upside down on a rack inside your oven. Put a few sheets of aluminum…………… continues on WWSB ABC 7

Breast cancer is probably one of the most feared diagnosis a woman can get. The mere mention of it conjures up images of death, despair, or at best, disfigurement.

According to breastcancer.org, one in eight women will develop invasive breast cancer in her lifetime, and nearly 40,000 women lose their lives to the disease each year.

With such odds stacked against you, what, if anything, can you do to prevent becoming a statistic? In truth, there are many measures you can take—each of which will help decrease your risk.

It’s important to realize that less than 10 percent of all breast cancer cases are thought to be related to genetic risk factors.The remainder—90 percent—appear to be triggered by environmental factors.

I strongly believe that cancer is preventable through appropriate lifestyle changes, such as cleaning up your diet, optimizing your vitamin D levels, exercising, and avoiding toxins from every source you can.

This means taking careful inventory of the household and personal care products you use, and the furnishings and other potentially toxic items you get into contact with on a daily basis. Toxic overexposure undoubtedly play a major role in cancer development, and recent studies are finally starting to shed light on the worst offenders.

Two things happened in 2010 that impacted the way we approach sanitation. First, a book entitled Extreme Green Cleaning by Vince Elliott was p…………… continues on Chemical-Free Cleaning: Revisited – Food Safety Magazine

5 Spot: Dress your porch for fall

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By the end of summer, flowers start to look kind of nasty. To get your patio ready for fall, pull out all the raggedy flowers and put them in the compost. Then, replace them with simple but stunning fall displays. Pumpkins and gourds always look festive.

For a fun treatment, top a planter with a riser of some sort, plop on a pumpkin, then ensconce the treatment with a wire orb. Thread in some bittersweet or other fall vine, and, boom, you have a killer display in minutes.

And if you have topiaries that flank your porch, dress those up, too. Try twisting fall ribbon around them, or toss a tumble of gourds on the soil at the base of the plant. Easy and gorgeous!

— Mary Carol Garrity

A few drops reveal big water waste

Did you know you can use food dye to check for toilet leaks?

Toilet leaks rank among the biggest water wasters — often 200 gallons a day. But how do you know your toilet is leaking? Put a few drops of food coloring (red, green or blue work best) in your toilet tank and wait 20 minutes. If the color seeps into the toilet bowl without flushing, there’s a leak. Make sure to flush the toilet immediately…………… continues on Kenosha News

MIDDLETOWN — An 18-year-old man who police say was unhappy with his mother because she did not feed him retaliated by spraying Pine-Sol and Dawn dish detergent around the living room.

Tramaine Goforth of Schaefer Road fled from his mother’s house before police arrived at about 9:30 p.m. Monday, boasting that the police would not find him. Middletown officers tracked down Goforth a short time later, a short distance from the house.

His mother told police that she has been having trouble with her son “because he doesn’t want to do anything around the house and he doesn’t even want to find a job,” according to a police report. She told the officers that her son was screaming and swearing at her and wouldn’t stop, and that she called police after he began spraying the living room with household cleaning products.

“I observed a bottle of Pine-Sol and Dawn dish detergent on the living room floor and remnants of said product strewn all over the floor, walls, ceiling and also on their flat-screen television,” Officer Edwin Ortiz noted in his…………… continues on CTNow

Spring Clean Your House This Fall and Help 18 Chicago Metro Nonprofit …News from Chicago Tribune:

From the community:

By Community Contributor info00000290,About this post

2014 VOLUNTEER CENTER MAKE A DIFFERENCE DAYCommunity Encouraged to Donate New or Gently Used Items to NonprofitsDrive it Up, Drop it Off and Make it Count. The Volunteer Center (VC) is sponsoring its 12th annual Make A Difference Day on Saturday, October 25th from 9 am- noon at the Indian Hill Train Station in Winnetka. This is one of the largest one day drop off donation events on the North Shore. Representatives from 18 nonprofits will be present to receive the much-needed goods.

This is a perfect opportunity for North Shore residents and groups to make a difference for a wide variety of nonprofit organizations and their clients…………… continues on Chicago Tribune